A review by kikipix
Beautiful Little Fools by Jillian Cantor

Love a good “the other side of the history” take on a story. Being a take on The Great Gatsby it’s hard to avoid an expectation of the roaring 20s and glam aesthetic in the book. While this book is meant to illuminate that it wasn’t in fact, all crystal coupe classes and diamonds hair pins, it did take place amongst this glamour and that’s what makes the story tantalizing - and yet the book largely left that up to just the reader to create. I would’ve liked to have had a little bit more of the setting integrated with the story. It could be the intent was to make it not feel like the mistreatment of the women was distinctive to that period, to emphasize how much of what transpired seems to still occur in present day be it 1920s or 2020s, but that’s me giving benefit of the doubt and I would’ve like to have seen that made more clear if that was the case.